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Sherry Ann Allen was a philanthropic thief, using cash she stole from her Washington County employer to feed the poor, send Jesus followers to foreign lands and shower her co-workers with gifts, federal court records show.

Sherry Ann Allen was a philanthropic thief, using cash she stole from her Washington County employer to feed the poor, send Jesus followers to foreign lands and shower her co-workers with gifts, federal court records show.

Allen has struck a deal to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Greeneville on June 20 before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer to charges of theft by a credit union officer and attempted tax evasion.

Climbing the ladder while stealing

Allen admits in the plea agreement brokered between Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reeves and defense attorney Jerry Fabus Jr., she stole $1.2 million from the Greater Eastern Credit Union in Washington County from 2011 to November 2017.

Allen started her career at the credit union in June 1988. By January 2014, she had climbed to the post of chief executive officer - even as she was stealing from the credit union, that plea agreement shows.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer is shown in an undated photo.(Photo: Greeneville Sun)

Reeves wrote in the plea agreement that Allen first began stealing from the credit union in 2011 while swimming in credit card debt. Using credit union money, she wiped out the debt. But she didn’t stop stealing, Reeves wrote.

She bought a couple of pricey trucks. She and her husband went on cruises and traveled, including a trip to Europe. They bought a timeshare in Orlando, a camper, jewelry and clothes, the plea agreement stated.

Spreading the stolen wealth

She stole still more to donate “to charitable causes,” Reeves wrote.

“She took her church youth group on several trips, including missions to Ireland, Nicaragua twice, and Florida,” Reeves wrote. “She paid for Vacation Bible School items. She gave stolen money to people who needed groceries and purchased two vehicles for her church.”

She paid for fellow employees to take trips and cruises and bought “expensive gifts,” including a fire pit and outdoor furniture, for credit union employees in the Christmas season, the plea agreement stated.

Meanwhile, Allen hid her purloined cash from the IRS in tax filings, robbing tax coffers of more than $300,000, according to the plea agreement.

Allen’s undoing proved to be a Johnson City vendor of the credit union who noticed Allen had deposited $10,000 into her personal account while processing the vendor’s invoice. He called the Johnson City Police Department.

Allen, the plea agreement stated, had set up various accounts at the credit union using her family members' names and made herself a co-owner on each, ensuring other employees wouldn’t monitor them.

“Allen purposely did this so that the large financial transfers she made would not be subject to review and would not be detected,” Reeves wrote.

She used various means of trickery, including siphoning off money by altering vendor payment amounts, and relied on a bank tool known as the “hidden transaction feature” to keep her superiors from catching her, court records stated.